Sarah and Tom Parker-Bowles after the ceremony
Princes Harry and William shelter from the rain
The groom's mother and stepfather arrive for the wedding
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Brolly good show as new Mrs Parker Bowles turns up very fashionably late
By Andrew Alderson and Nina Goswami
(Filed: 11/09/2005)
Perhaps the bride had always intended to be fashionably late. Alternatively, it might have been wedding-day nerves - or even fears over how her wedding outfit would go down with critical fellow writers from the fashion world.
Sara Buys, however, arrived fully 20 minutes behind schedule yesterday afternoon for her wedding to Tom Parker Bowles, keeping 180 guests, including the Prince of Wales, waiting at a rural church in Oxfordshire.
If the bride was nervous, she was not alone. The groom had stopped on his way to the church for a stiff drink at the local pub, the Maltsters Arms, with his best man, Ben Elliot. He apparently wanted to steady his nerves and catch up on the Test match score.
Five months ago, Miss Buys's outfit at the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles had been regarded as a faux pas. Yesterday, as the bride, Miss Buys got it right, looking stylish in an outfit by Alexander McQueen, the British designer.
As light rain fell, she was shielded from the elements by an umbrella. The bodice of her strapless, silk ivory dress was in a fitted corset shape. She wore her hair in a French roll and her lace-edged train was attached with cream roses.
On the day that the Waleses and the Parker Bowleses played wedding-day happy families for the second time this year, Miss Buys, 32, married Mr Parker Bowles, 31, the son of the Duchess of Cornwall, in a traditional 35-minute church service.
Prince Charles, the Duchess, Prince William and Prince Harry were all present in St Nicholas' Church, Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames. So, too, were Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, the groom's father, and the groom's sister, Laura. The Duchess wore an ice-blue dress with silver embroidery with a matching jacket and feather headdress.
There were five bridesmaids and the guests included Lady Annabel Goldsmith, her sons, Zac and Ben, and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Howe.
Mr Parker Bowles, an Eton-educated food writer, is Prince Charles's godson. His life has been scrutinised by the media because of his mother's long on-off relationship with Prince Charles. Six years ago, he was exposed by a tabloid newspaper for taking cocaine at a West End party.
Miss Buys, a fashion features editor at Harpers & Queen, attended the Prince of Wales's wedding in a £2,500 Yves Saint Laurent outfit, which included a bustle-backed, micro-mini. It was deemed to have been too daring.
The rector, the Rev Brendan Bailey, who officiated at yesterday's wedding, said: "It was a classic traditional country wedding."
Neither Prince William nor Prince Harry was accompanied by his girlfriend. It was apparently decided that the presence of Kate Middleton or Chelsy Davy would have overshadowed the couple's wedding day.
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